Using Externally-Hosted Web Services: Good Idea or Bad?A talk on Using Externally-Hosted Web Services: Good Idea or Bad? was given at the JANET User Support Workshop held at the University of Cambridge on 4-6th July 2000.
The talk took place from 15.30-16.00 on Wednesday 5th July in the Auditorium.
Note that Brian also ran a workshop session.
Haven't got the resources to develop an in-house solution to your Web needs? Have you thought about using an externally-hosted Web service? Externally-hosted web service can be used to provide a range of functions which initially required the installation and support of software locally. Typical uses include Web usage analysis, user feedback, link management and server availability reporting. Many of these services are available for free. Sounds great? But will use of such services result in a loss of control? Can third parties be trusted to look after the data? What about the implications of the Data Protection Act? And since many of these services are free because they are funded by advertising, does use of them contravene the JANET Acceptable Use Policy?
Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus, a national, JISC-funded Web coordination post based at UKOLN, University of Bath.
Brian has been involved in the development of web services since early 1993 - the Web service he supported at Leeds University was one of the first 30 organisational web services available. As most Universities at the time were convinced that Gopher was the most appropriate technology for distributed information systems, between 1993 and 1995 Brian (who was worried that he may have chosen the Internet equivalent of the Betamax system!) gave presentations about the Web throughout the UK.
In 1995 Brian joined the Netskills project at Newcastle University where he was involved in development of network training material.
In November 1996 Brian took up his current post in Bath. His responsibilities include monitoring web developments, information dissemination, providing advice and representing JISC on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Brian has presented posters at the WWW 8 and 9 conferences. He has attended WWW conferences at Toronto (WWW8, May 1999), Brisbane (WWW7, April 1998), Santa Clara (WWW6, April 1997), Paris (WWW5, May, 1996) and Geneva (WWW1, May 1994).
Dissemination of information on web developments is one of the important aspects of Brian's responsibilities. In addition to organising the annual Web manager's workshop, and participation at events such as the JANET User Support Workshop, Brian publishes articles in a variety of publications, including the Ariadne (see <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/>) and Exploit Interactive (see <http://www.exploit-lib.org/>) Web magazines.